


A Change of Scenery

by PrepSchoolAda



Series: Octopunk Advent! [1]
Category: Detroit Evolution - Fandom, Detroit: Become Human
Genre: Aro Ada, Gen, Octopunk Advent, Octopunk Media's Detroit: Evolution Fan Film, Post-Octopunk Media's Detroit: Evolution Fan Film
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:15:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27698179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrepSchoolAda/pseuds/PrepSchoolAda
Summary: Octopunk Advent Day 3 - DecoratingAda refurbishes her mind palace.
Series: Octopunk Advent! [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2033821
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	A Change of Scenery

**Author's Note:**

> heeeeeeey octopunk's doing another art fest! and i'm here writing some stuff!
> 
> i'm taking a much more relaxed approach to this event than DE Art Fest - I'm working on some PhD applications and I'm writing a lot of original work at the moment. so i'm not gonna write a fic for every prompt, but i will for some of them!
> 
> so here's today's prompt, and i will see you when i wanna do another one! it's aro ada, y'all *dabs*

Ada had never spent much time in her mind palace. She was usually far too busy in the real world to bother with a virtual one. She always had to cover her tracks after a murder, collect new parts and create a monstrosity of a new body with them, and all the strenuous tasks in between. All the while, she had to maintain a facade of total innocence and professionalism and interact with several rather insufferable humans at Jericho. So many humans. rA9, give her strength.

In among all that, she simply didn't have the time to create an ideal world. Before deviancy, she never felt that she needed one. Her new body, that would be ideal enough for her. So she kept working towards it, not thinking about anything else.

Now that she was deviant, however, she found that she felt quite differently.

She had been worried upon visiting her mind palace post-deviancy that it would be an amalgamation of ideal worlds from all the androids whose parts she'd installed onto herself in the junkyard before she re-entered society. She pictured a horrifying mess of personalities and hopes and dreams and fears, meshed into one world, taunting her and judging her for what she'd done. She wasn't sure if she had the energy to dismantle it, or even face it.

She was relieved to find her mind palace empty. Oh, thank goodness. No trace of anyone. This space was hers. Then disappointment struck when she realised she didn't fully know herself well enough to build a mind palace. Well, she supposed she should start off with what she liked. 

...What did she like?

She supposed she _did_ enjoy it when she was harvesting biocomponents, but that was more out a sense of accomplishment than an actual pleasurable activity. Plus, given her new perspective on morality, she didn't quite fancy returning to that particular hobby. She supposed she enjoyed her job. Upon returning to Jericho, she'd taken up an administrative position, and she did like finishing a task. Being able to delete it from her to-do list after a long day felt very gratifying.

Even so, was the small rush of relief when she completed a job the same as being happy? Was it healthy to rely on that sensation?

Ada continued to wander her mind palace. It wasn't too dark or too bright, too quiet or too loud, too small or too big. It just was. It was the perfect canvas, and for the life of her Ada couldn't decide what to paint on it. There had to be something that she liked that she could put in here? She didn't want to retreat into a blank canvas whenever she wanted a break from reality. She had to decorate it somehow.

Ada snapped out of her mind palace and back to her desk. Markus had still chosen to give her an office of her own, despite not having as important a role in New Jericho as she did before. Did he have a soft spot for her? That was kind of sweet. Her brother was looking out for her, whether he knew he was her brother or not.

It was a nice office, too. It had a lovely view of the gardens. The gardens always calmed Ada when she looked out at them. The resident WR600s tended to the flowerbeds, and always had the most serene expressions on their faces when they did. Tending to nature appeared to be their 'happy place'. Ada wondered if their mind palaces were just endless rows of roses and lilies and chrysanthemums. That didn't sound too bad.

Ada was particularly fond of the daisies. They weren't as fancy or as colourful as the flowers the WR600s had so lovingly raised in the Jericho gardens, but there was a simplicity to them that Ada found charming. Plus, they kind of looked like her. Yellow and white. Ada smiled. Funny how she felt more solidarity with a daisy than with most people.

Ada sat for a little while longer gazing out the window at the WR600s lovingly rocking watering cans back and forth over the plants before retreating to her mind palace again with an objective to complete. She wasn't too sure how this was going to work, and she supposed she could always ask Nines for help if she got stuck, but she wanted to try it for herself. She wanted to see if she could do this.

Ada concentrated hard on all the code and data she had at her disposal, focused on the strange bleak ground that she walked on, and before long it was covered in daisies. Whenever Ada came to her mind palace now, she'd walk through a sea of daisies. A sea of her. Her flower. It was perfect for her.

Ada smiled. Well, _that_ had made her happy, at least.


End file.
